_2dly_, When mankind was universally degenerate, and all flesh had corrupted their way, before the flood, and God determined to destroy them, yet he would not do this, till his patience had spared them, after he had given an intimation of this desolating judgment, an hundred and twenty years before it came, Gen. vi. 2, 3. and Noah was, during this time, a preacher of righteousness, while the long-suffering of God is said to have waited on them, 2 Pet. ii. 5. compared with 1 Pet. iii. 20. _3dly_, The Gentiles, who not only worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, but committed other vile abominations, contrary to the dictates of nature, and thereby filled up the measure of their iniquity, are, notwithstanding, said to be the objects of God’s patience, though in a lower sense, than that in which believers are said to be so; accordingly the apostle observes, _that in times past, God suffered all nations to walk in their own ways_, that is, God did not draw forth his sword out of its sheath, by which metaphor the prophet sets forth the patience of God; he did not stir up all his wrath, _but gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness_, Acts xiv. 16, 17. Ezek. xxi. 3. _4thly_, The church of the Jews, before the coming of Christ, had long experience of the forbearance of God. It is said, that _he suffered their manners forty years in the wilderness_, Acts xiii. 18. and afterwards, when they often revolted to idolatry, following the customs of the nations round about them, yet he did not utterly destroy them, but, in their distress, raised them up deliverers; and when their iniquity was grown to such a height that none but a God of infinite patience, could have borne with them, he, notwithstanding, spared them many years before he suffered them to be carried away captive into Babylon; and afterwards, when their rebellion against him was arrived to the highest pitch, when they had crucified the Lord of glory, yet he spared them some time, till the gospel was first preached to them, and they had rejected it, and thereby _judged themselves unworthy of eternal life_, Acts xiii. 46. _5thly_, After this, the patience of God was extended to those who endeavoured to pervert the gospel of Christ, namely, to false teachers and backsliding churches, to whom he gave _space to repent, but repented not_, Rev. ii. 21. And to this we may add, that he has not yet poured forth the vials of his wrath on the Antichristian powers, though he has threatened, that _their plagues shall come in one day_, chap. xviii. 1. (3.) We are next to consider the method which God takes in glorifying this attribute. We have already observed that, with respect to believers, the patience of God is glorified in subserviency to their salvation; but, with respect to others, by whom it is abused, the patience of God discovers itself,